ACM TechNews - Wednesday, April 30, 2003

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ACM TechNews
Volume 5, Number 489
Date: April 30, 2003

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Top Stories for Wednesday, April 30, 2003:
http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html

"Scientists Protest EU Software Patents"
"Sending of Spam With Fraud Is Now Felony in Virginia"
"DARPA Funds TIA Privacy Study"
"Are Internet Ballots a Vote-Fixer's Dream?"
"The War Against Spam"
"As Privacy vs. Security Debate Heats Up, NSF Primes Sensor Pump"
"Licensed to War Drive in N.H."
"Speech Recognition Programs Still on ABCs"
"A New Way to Catch a Hacker"
"Geek Debate Gains National Prominence"
"Middleware Initiative Contributes Third Software Release"
"Suppliers Spar as Fast USB Nears"
"Borg Aimed for Achievement"
"Georgia Tech Researchers Use Lab Cultures to Control Robotic Device"
"Halting Nanotech Research 'Illogical', Says Pioneer"
"Digital Cells"
"Sliver of the Pie"
"Leveraging a Global Advantage"
"Who Loves Ya, Baby?"

******************* News Stories ***********************

"Scientists Protest EU Software Patents"
A cadre of 31 European scientists has signed a petition submitted
to the European Parliament opposing a proposal that they fear
could establish a U.S.-style patent system in the European Union
that allows software ideas and algorithms to be patented.  They ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0430w.html#item1

"Sending of Spam With Fraud Is Now Felony in Virginia"
Growing public anger toward unsolicited commercial email and the
deceptive methods that spammers use is causing Congress and U.S.
states to consider tough solutions, and one of the harshest
anti-spam measures was passed into law by the state of Virginia ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0430w.html#item2

"DARPA Funds TIA Privacy Study"
The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Information Directorate
has awarded a $3.5 million contract to the Palo Alto Research
Center (PARC) to study the individual privacy protections of the
Total Information Awareness (TIA) program.  The TIA is being ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0430w.html#item3

"Are Internet Ballots a Vote-Fixer's Dream?"
A number of computer experts are worried about government
elections being electronically tabulated, with some even
collecting votes via the Internet.  The United Kingdom is
conducting 17 such electronic elections this week in different ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0430w.html#item4

"The War Against Spam"
Jupiter Research estimates that the number of unsolicited
commercial emails users receive annually has skyrocketed from 140
billion in 2001 to 319 billion in 2003, while the average email
recipient is expected to have to wade through more than 3,900 ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0430w.html#item5

"As Privacy vs. Security Debate Heats Up, NSF Primes Sensor Pump"
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is set to fuel
standards-setting and new products in the nascent wireless sensor
sector.  John Cozzens, program director for the NSF's Signal
Processing Sensor Program, said at a recent Palo Alto Research ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0430w.html#item6

"Licensed to War Drive in N.H."
New Hampshire is considering legislation that could make it legal
to exploit open wireless networks in the state, a first that the
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) calls "enlightened."  "It
seems like a fairly clean way of accommodating the geek-culture ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0430w.html#item7

"Speech Recognition Programs Still on ABCs"
The adoption of speech recognition technology has proceeded at a
slow pace due to computers' general inability to understand the
many nuances of human speech.  Speech software and embedded
speech devices are doing well, but they specialize in niche ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0430w.html#item8

"A New Way to Catch a Hacker"
The nonprofit Honeynet Project, the brainchild of computer
security expert Lance Spitzner, has spent the last four years
studying hackers and the intrusion methods they use by allowing
them to break into honeypots--systems intentionally designed to ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0430w.html#item9

"Geek Debate Gains National Prominence"
Major American institutions have begun to work on balancing out
the public and private ownership of ideas--a topic formerly
limited to computer enthusiasts--in a way that spurs innovation
without hindering follow-on innovation.  This debate stems from ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0430w.html#item10

"Middleware Initiative Contributes Third Software Release"
The National Science Foundation Middleware Initiative (NMI) has
made the third release of its software toolset available to the
public.  NMI seeks to create the middleware and other software
components necessary for wider online scientific collaboration ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0430w.html#item11

"Suppliers Spar as Fast USB Nears"
A 480 Mbps "high-speed" version of the USB 2.0 connectivity
standard is expected to come out before 2004, and most vendors
are mating it to the "On The Go" (OTG) specification.  USB
On-The-Go products are already being offered by several ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0430w.html#item12

"Borg Aimed for Achievement"
Computer scientist and pioneer Anita Borg, who passed away on
April 7 at the age of 54, dedicated much of her professional life
to encouraging women to pursue careers in the high-tech and
science fields.  "The industry owes Anita, the woman, the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0430w.html#item13

"Georgia Tech Researchers Use Lab Cultures to Control Robotic Device"
A research team at Georgia Institute of Technology's Laboratory
for Neuroengineering aims to build computing systems whose
performance mirrors that of the human brain.  Their latest
innovation is the Hybrot, a robotic device that is controlled by ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0430w.html#item14

"Halting Nanotech Research 'Illogical', Says Pioneer"
Foresight Institute Chairman Eric Drexler, who coined the term
"nanotechnology," argues that a ban on nanotech research, as
suggested by a team of researchers at the University of Toronto's
Joint Center for Bioethics, makes little sense.  Although he ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0430w.html#item15

"Digital Cells"
Researchers are working to implant computer programs into human
cells so they can fulfill a wide array of functions, including
pollutant cleanup, detection of cancer cells, and the manufacture
of antibiotics or molecule-sized electronics.  Cells have their ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0430w.html#item16

"Sliver of the Pie"
IT salaries appear to have more or less flattened, while job
satisfaction has declined 10 percent over the past two years,
according to InformationWeek's 2003 National IT Salary Survey; to
succeed in the current market, IT workers must focus on ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0430w.html#item17

"Leveraging a Global Advantage"
Dynamic, just-in-time software development is being driven by
increases in freelance programmers, open-source skills, and
offshore outsourcing.  The gap between dispersed workers is being
bridged by emerging frameworks and the application of ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0430w.html#item18

"Who Loves Ya, Baby?"
Social-network software that visualizes the interactions and
relationships within groups of people promises to radically
transform large organizations.  Mapping social interactions has
become easier thanks to the advent of email, chat rooms, Web ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0430w.html#item19


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